Nearly 1,000 jobs a week lost in Hong Kong

Hong Kong, Dec 1 (DPA) Jobs are being lost at a rate of nearly 1,000 a week in Hong Kong as the global economic slump rocks the wealthy former British colony, a survey claimed Monday.Nearly 6,000 jobs have been lost in the last six weeks, and another 4,600 job losses have already been announced for the weeks and months ahead, according to the study by the South China Morning Post.

The sector hardest hit by the slump is the financial sector, where 1,780 jobs have been lost already, the newspaper said in a study of job losses across the city of 6.9 million people.

More than 1,300 jobs have been lost in the property and construction sector, while 1,029 jobs have gone in the restaurant industry and 929 in retailing.

Hong Kong’s jobless rate will edge toward four percent from its current 3.5 percent as the impact of the downturn is felt in the weeks and months ahead, the newspaper predicted.

One effect of the slump is that expatriates are leaving Hong Kong in what could turn out to be their biggest exodus, according to the newspaper.

Hong Kong, which last month officially went into recession, has seen property prices slumping and shares shedding almost 40 percent of their value since September.